Families can offset pandemic learning loss with simple strategies at home
Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, parents and caregivers have been tasked with navigating a series of obstacles, from potential changes in employment to balancing virtual learning and the resulting educational and social voids. By August 2020, 70 percent of parents reported their childcare program had either closed or reduced hours or capacity, according the Bipartisan Policy […] Read More »
Decode Project Equips Students with Literacy, Mentorship, and Confidence
“I probably behaved that way because I didn’t know how to read. I didn’t know how to do it. And now I do.” – Louisville First Grader Most Americans assume we left our literacy struggles behind after the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). One reason for this belief is the NCLB coincided with […] Read More »
Kindergarten Readiness is a Community Effort
As a community, we are fortunate to be part of a city that is data-focused and informed. We are grateful to the Greater Louisville Project for helping us better understand the realities, successes, and needs of the youngest in our community. But as we look at the data— specifically JCPS kindergarten readiness by students’ home […] Read More »
JCPS Provides Over 70,000 Devices to Students
If Non-Traditional Instruction (NTI) or Distance Learning has done anything, it has highlighted the Digital Divide more than ever before. In doing so, it has forced school districts to evaluate how they plan to support their students and the community. As Jefferson County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Marty Pollio outlined in his October 16, 2020 […] Read More »
As 55K Sunsets, Fight for Equity and Affordability in Postsecondary Education Continues
This post was published as an op-ed in the Louisville Courier-Journal on August 21, 2020. A decade ago, our community set an ambitious goal: by 2020, half of Louisville’s working-age adults would have a college degree. Although we didn’t achieve the goal, we can be proud that we’ve added more than 39,000 degrees in the […] Read More »
100 Community Partners Unite to get Louisville Children Ready for Kindergarten
By Ashley Brandt | Senior Manager, Early Care and Education | Metro United Way Nearly 50% of children in Jefferson County enter kindergarten unprepared to learn. Why does this matter? Isn’t kindergarten only the beginning of a child’s academic career? Don’t kindergarteners have plenty of time to learn and catch up with their peers? Unfortunately, they […] Read More »
See what Kentucky Youth Advocates Research Director, Amy Swann has to say about the 2020 Census
Kentucky Youth Advocates Research Director, Amy Swann on how the Census impacts our kids at school, how the Census can impact kids’ health, how you can be sure you’re speaking to a legitimate Census Bureau employee, and more. For more information on 2020 Census jobs, click here. Learn how you can spread the word here. […] Read More »
See what Metro United Way Director of Engagement, Mandy Simpson has to say about the 2020 Census
Metro United Way Director of Engagement Mandy Simpson discusses groups that are typically undercounted in the Census, how the Census impacts international communities, why it’s easier than ever to complete the Census, and more. For more information on 2020 Census jobs, click here. Learn how you can spread the word here. To view important dates […] Read More »
See what Kentucky State Representative, Attica Scott has to say about the 2020 Census
State Representative of Kentucky House District 41, Rep. Attica Scott discusses the importance of the 2020 Census, how it determines redistricting and representation, why you shouldn’t be concerned with completing the survey, and more. For more information on 2020 Census jobs, click here. Learn how you can spread the word here. To view important dates […] Read More »
Partner Spotlight: Universal Woods CEO Paul Neumann on the benefits of employee higher ed and paying tuition up-front
Universal Woods President & CEO Paul Neumann was a little dubious when he saw data showing the portion of Louisville’s working population that had earned some college credits but never finished. “It said something like 25 percent of adults over 25 had some college education but had not completed a degree. I read that and […] Read More »
Natural Breaks Algorithm
For each indicator, Greater Louisville Project assigns cities into one of three groups (high-performing, middle-of-the-pack, and low-performing) based on how they compare to other cities. The assignment is based on how cities naturally cluster on that indicator. Sometimes, the differences between cities are very small, and the difference between a city ranked 5th and 6th could simply be a matter of the sampling error that arises from using survey data. Thus, rather than always make a division that declares the top 5 to be the top tier, we use a natural breaks algorithm to look for a cluster of cities that is outperforming the rest, a cluster that is about average, and a cluster that is lagging. This clustering gives us a better indication of where Louisville is thriving and where Louisville has room to learn from cities that are doing better.
Z-Scores
Z-scores (or standardization) is a way to combine data with different units of measurement into a single index. The z-score is a measure of how far away a city (or census tract, etc.) is from the average city. In order to be comparable across different units of measurement, the z-score is the distance from the mean measured in standard deviations (e.g. if Louisville has a z-score of 1 it means Louisville is 1 standard deviation above the mean of its peer cities).
Data from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's County Health Rankings use z-scores and all z-scores are relative to the mean of Louisville's peer cities. (On the County Health Rankings site z-scores are relative to all the counties in each state - thus z-scores reported by GLP will be different, because we are using a different reference group). The Greater Louisville Project also uses z-scores in our multidimensional poverty index, which compares each census tract to the mean of all census tracts in Louisville.